USD to give cost of attendance stipends to student-athletes

The University of South Dakota Department of Athletics will now cover attendance stipends to student-athletes.

On Friday, the department said in a press release that stipends will be available for athletes from all 17 sports beginning with the 2016-2017 season.

In January, the NCAA adopted new rules which allow scholarships for athletes to include expenses beyond tuition and fees, including academic-related expenses, transportation and personal incidentals.

“Being a student-athlete at South Dakota is a full-time commitment and as such, it’s important that we support our athletes in any way we can,” said Herbster in the release.

The values of these benefits will cap at $4,145 per athlete, USD Athletics Director David Herbster said.

A total cost has not been decided upon, though he said the stipends will likely claim four to six percent of the athletics department $12-12.5 million budget.

“We’re still working through the process and the formula,” Herbster said.

The total amount will likely change from year to year, he added.

The stipends are not exclusive to athletes who receive full-ride scholarships. The amount athletes receive will be dependent upon the number of credits they’re enrolled in, as well as how much financial aid they’re already receiving, Herbster said.

The funds used to pay for the student stipends are all externally-raised dollars, not student fees or institutional dollars.

Herbster said he thinks the additional financial assistance is important because student athletes rarely have enough time to work a part or full-time job, even in the summer.

“We’ll always do everything we can here for student athletes,” Herbster said.

USD’s announcement comes after the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University recently announced they would also be offering cost of attendance for athletes. The announcement also makes USD the first college in South Dakota to offer the stipends.